The first food bank in the U.S., St. Mary’s, was established in 1967 in Arizona. The founder, John van Hengel, used to volunteer serving meals when he had the thought to do even more for his community. He heard one of the mothers at St. Vincent DePaul where he helped hand out meals say that she was only able to provide food for her children by searching through dumpsters at grocery stores and taking them to soup kitchens for free meals. This drove him to connect with others in the community to work out a system where those who had… read more